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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28173309">Recovering</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanficshiddles/pseuds/fanficshiddles'>fanficshiddles</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Loki - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Animalistic, F/M, Failed HYDRA Experiment, Fluff, Loki - Freeform, Soft Loki, human acting like animal, recovering, training a human to be human again, wild human</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:54:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,360</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28173309</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanficshiddles/pseuds/fanficshiddles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Two parter. Loki comes across a failed Hydra experiment. A young woman has the mind of a wild animal, but is still a human. Loki rescues her and then has to try and gain her trust and teach her to be a human again. </p><p>Just a little something I can’t get out of my mind so I had to write it out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>59</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Part 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Loki had been part of the Avengers for over a year. He had proved to be trustworthy enough of a team member, his past mistakes forgiven.</p><p>But he still got up to mischief, which often caused the other Avengers to get annoyed with him. But they were getting used to it. Sometimes they found his pranks funny, if they weren’t directed at them, that was.</p><p>Fury sent him on a mission with Bruce and Steve to clear out a Hydra base. To pick up any essential information that might be of use, and take out any Hydra soldiers.</p><p>Bruce had Hulked out and was fighting outside with Steve. Loki went inside the old warehouse base, to see what he could find. It seemed to be mostly empty, apart from a few soldiers loitering around that were swiftly dealt with.</p><p>But after picking up some documents that looked important, he heard a strange growling sound come from the back corner. There was a large sheet covering it.</p><p>Too curious to just leave it, he wandered over and hauled the sheet off. His eyes widened in confusion when he saw a woman in a large cage, wearing nothing but a night gown by the looks of it. Her hair was a mess, matted and pretty long. She was crouched over in the corner, looking terrified.</p><p>He could hear some more soldiers coming his way, but he wasn’t about to leave the woman there. She would die otherwise. So he opened the cage with his Seidr, the lock no match for him. When he opened it, she didn’t move.</p><p>‘It’s ok, I won’t hurt you. I’ll get you to safety. I work with The Aveng’ He was cut off when she suddenly darted out from the cage on her hands and feet, moving like an animal would do, barrelling past him.</p><p>Loki watched in confusion as she ran around the place, looking panicked. Making weird grunting noises. But then two soldiers came bursting into the room, Loki was about to teleport to her to get her to safety, but she launched for the nearest soldier and attacked him like a tiger would. Ripped into his neck with her teeth, killing him quickly.</p><p>Then she launched for the other solider.</p><p>Loki noticed a file attached to her cage door. He picked it up and realised his mistake.</p><p>It said she was a failed experiment, highly dangerous and should never be let out. She had turned half feral, had the mind of a wild animal and half the strength of one, too. But looked just like a human, aside from her brain wasn’t working like it should.</p><p>‘Oh dear.’ Loki was now in a bit of a dilemma. But he still didn’t want to just leave her, she was a victim. Part of Hydra’s horrible experimenting.</p><p>Steve came across comms. ‘Loki, have you got the information? We are almost finished out here!’</p><p>‘Yeah, nearly finished. I’ll meet you back at base.’ He said to Steve.</p><p>The girl continued running around the room in a panic, trying to get out. Scrambling at the doors and windows, but Loki had locked them with his Seidr. Not wanting her to escape and get hurt by Hulk or Steve thinking she was part of Hydra.</p><p>‘Hey, it’s alright.’ Loki managed to get her into a corner and he put his hands out to try and show he wasn’t a threat.</p><p>‘I’m not going to hurt you… I just want to get you to safety.’ He said softly.</p><p>She looked at him, wide eyed, panting and snarling. Her teeth looked sharper than the average humans, but not overly so. He couldn’t tell what colour her hair truly was, as she was very dirty. He dreaded to think how long she had been locked up in that cage for, there was no date on the information.</p><p>Using his illusions, he made a distraction across the room. Her head whipped round in the direction of the noise, so that’s when Loki striked. He used his cape and covered her with it. She struggled and tried to fight back, snarling like mad.</p><p>But Loki was able to pin her down underneath his cape. He waited a moment, glad when she calmed down. She was like a feral cat, but much stronger and obviously bigger. Though Loki was able to scoop her up easily into his arms, still snugly wrapped in the cape.</p><p>He didn’t want Steve to freak out, so instead of going back with them in the quinjet, he teleported himself and the girl back to base, straight into his room.</p><p>When he put her down, she started struggling again and managed to get out from under the cape. She launched for him, but he was able to fight her off and she realised his strength wasn’t ordinary, so she went running across his room.</p><p>In her confusion and panic to get out, she jumped up on his desk and knocked everything flying off. Breaking his lamp in the process.</p><p>‘No, no, calm down. Get down from there.’ Loki said as he ran over and tried to get hold of her. But she leaped onto the bed and made a mess of his covers, knocked his pillows flying as she scrambled to get away from him.</p><p>‘Not the pillows!’ He groaned.</p><p>Then she bolted to the window and tried climbing up the curtains, but instead just pulled them down. The railing too, making a huge racket.</p><p>Loki by this point was now just hiding his face behind his hand.</p><p>‘What have I done?’ He muttered to himself.</p><p>After a bit of a fight, he managed to get her into his bathroom and he closed the door and put a spell over it, to make sure she couldn’t open it and that no one else could go in but him. He leaned back against the door and sighed as he slid down to the floor. Who knew trying to wrestle a human female with the mind of a tiger into a bathroom would be so exhausting?</p><p>He looked around his room and his heart sank. It was an absolute mess. But luckily, with a wave of his hand, he managed to get it back in order. The scratches from her scarily sharp nails on his arm healed up quick enough. He was just glad he had managed to avoid her teeth.</p><p>The team were a little confused when Loki got a lot of food from the kitchen and went back to his room with it. But they learned not to question Loki and his sometimes odd ways, so left him to it.</p><p>Loki knew he was going to have to try and earn her trust. But he knew that wasn’t going to be easy.</p><p>Whenever he went into the bathroom, she would either lunge for him or cower in the corner. But he was able to slide food in for her and quickly leave her in peace to eat. Each time he checked in, she had devoured the food.</p><p>She was a skinny little thing, he wondered how she still had the strength to remain upright. Never mind attack.</p><p>Over the following few weeks, he was able to get into the bathroom with her and not have her attack him. So he would take food and sit with her while she ate.</p><p>He also had some snacks with him, mini cookies. She seemed to like them as when he threw her one, she would gobble it up. So he was going to use those as treats.</p><p>‘I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to help. I know that you’ve been treated badly, I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.’ He spoke softly with her, which seemed to help.</p><p>She tilted her head at him often, like she was trying to understand what he was saying. Trying to process it.</p><p>He had tried giving her clothes once, but she didn’t know what to do with them and ripped them up. As the simple gown she had on wasn’t much use. But at least she liked the multitude of blankets and pillows he gave her, she snuggled up against them in a pile under the sink.</p><p>While she was in there, he had to use the communal bathroom to shower and use the toilet. The team noticed he was using it over time and asked questions, but he just shrugged them off and never gave them a proper answer.</p><p>‘I need to think of a name for you, at least until I can learn your real name.’ Loki said one day to the girl while he was sitting with her.</p><p>She was lying curled up on her pile of pillows, just watching him carefully.</p><p>‘I think you look like an Alice.’ He smiled and threw a cookie to her.</p><p>She reached out and she snatched it from the floor, eating it quickly.</p><p>‘Alice.’ He said again louder, when she was looking at him. Then he threw her another cookie.</p><p>Over the next couple of days, he continued to say her name and gave her a cookie when she seemed to respond to him. By the third day, he would say her name and she would sit up, looking alert and waiting for a cookie.</p><p>‘Good girl.’ He praised and threw her a cookie.</p><p>Then he decided to try and <em>train </em>her a bit more. So he put a cookie down closer to him. She was wary, keeping a close eye as she moved over on her hands and feet, crouched right down. When she got within reach of the cookie, she grabbed it and moved back to her safety distance to eat.</p><p>Loki kept doing it, having the cookie closer and closer to him. Until, eventually, she would sit on her knees and eat it quite close to him, within reach.</p><p>But then he made a mistake and reached out towards her when she wasn’t paying attention. So when he touched the side of her head, she freaked. In a bad way. She attacked him, ripping his jacket and scratching his face before she managed to rush back to her pile of blankets.</p><p>Loki didn’t want to end it on a bad note, so even though he was slightly startled at her attack, he said her name and got her attention, threw her a cookie then swiftly left the bathroom. A little frazzled.</p><p>As he exited the bathroom, Thor and the rest of the team were in his room, glaring at him with their arms folded over their chests.</p><p>‘Alright, Loki. Spill the beans. What are you hiding in there?’ Steve asked firmly.</p><p>‘Judging by the state of you it must be some wild animal.’ Natasha said, noting the way the stuffing was poking out of his shoulder and his sleeve on his other arm was torn.</p><p>The scratches on his face were starting to fade already as he healed. Luckily his favourite green waistcoat and tie was unscathed.</p><p>‘We know there’s something, all the food you’ve been sneaking away and using the other bathroom. What are you hiding? I knew there was something, you’ve been far too quiet!’ Tony said.</p><p>Loki chuckled and put his arms out to his side. ‘Come on. What did you expect? Of course there’s something in there.’</p><p>‘I’ve had enough of this.’ Clint said and went to push past Loki, but Loki quickly moved on front of him to stop him.</p><p>‘You don’t want to do that, trust me.’</p><p>‘What have you got in there?’ Bruce asked.</p><p>‘Ok… So, remember that mission where we raided the Hydra warehouse?’ Loki looked to Steve and Bruce, who both nodded. ‘Well, there was a failed experiment in there. She has been battered and bruised by Hydra agents, the experiment has completely messed her up… She’s a human, but with the mind of a tiger. Or some other, wild animal.’</p><p>The team looked between one another, not believing him.</p><p>‘You’re lying.’ Thor chuckled. ‘A wild human?’</p><p>Loki’s jaw clenched. ‘I am not lying, not this time.’</p><p>‘Prove it.’ Said Natasha.</p><p>Loki sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Alright, you did ask.’ He reached behind him and opened the door.</p><p>Alice was confused when she saw the door open, but Loki didn’t appear. She had heard voices, but was wary about going to take a look. But curiosity quickly got the better of her and she carefully wandered over to the door, into view of the others.</p><p>She snarled when she saw a bunch of people behind Loki and she quickly backed away again, running to her bed.</p><p>Loki swiftly shut the door to give her privacy. Then he turned to the others, who all looked completely stunned.</p><p>‘I did tell you.’ He shrugged with a smirk.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Part 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The team were apologetic to Loki after learning the truth. They even tried helping him out by making sure she had enough food and giving him tips about how to try and get her trust more.</p><p>Loki slowly managed to get Alice back to the stage where she was eating her cookies next to him. Just a foot away. But Loki knew not to make any sudden movements, he didn’t want to get mauled again if he could help it.</p><p>‘Alice.’ He said softly.</p><p>She lifted her head up straight away at hearing her name. He smiled and held out a cookie for her. ‘Good girl, Alice. Go on, take it. It’s ok.’</p><p>Alice looked at his outstretched hand warily, not sure about taking the cookie from his hand. But her hunger for the treat got the better of her and she quickly snatched it from him.</p><p>But it was progress in Loki’s eyes.</p><p>For safety reasons, he decided to teach her what <em>bed </em>meant. So when she was next to him, he carefully tossed a cookie onto her bed and said <em>bed </em>at the same time. She soon picked it up and would go there whenever he told her to.</p><p>That’s when he decided to leave the bathroom door open as a trial. He felt bad for keeping her cooped up in the bathroom.</p><p>He sat on his bed while he waited for her to venture out. She did, slowly, come out and look around. She wasn’t as panicked this time, so he didn’t have to worry about his room getting trashed.</p><p>But what he hadn’t taken into consideration was one idiotic brother who came barging in like there was a fire.</p><p>She freaked, naturally. But what surprised Loki the most was that she ran and hid behind him, instead of attacking Thor. Which part of him was slightly disappointed at.</p><p>After getting Thor out of his room and locking it, Alice went back to looking around. Once she had investigated every nook and cranny, she slowly went back into the bathroom to her bed.</p><p>Loki felt like he had her trust, at least to an extent. But he wished he could get to the stage of touching her, so he could try and get her more comfortable by washing her and sorting her hair out. Then getting better clothes onto her.</p><p>A week later, she came out of the bathroom more and more. Loki left the door open all the time for her.</p><p>But when she jumped up onto his bed once, he was surprised, yet pleased. She curled up at the bottom, finding it more comfortable than her own bed. He was warmed she trusted him enough now to do that, even closing her eyes.</p><p>He draped a blanket over her, she opened her eyes quickly and gave a warning snarl at him, but didn’t do anything else. Finding she liked the warmth the blanket brought.</p><p>When he woke one morning, he found Alice had moved up closer to him. She was looking at him curiously, at his hand that was flat on the bed beside him. He didn’t move, waiting to see what she would do.</p><p>She sniffed his hand first, then bit him! Which made him jump, it was quite painful.</p><p>‘NO!’ He said firmly and it was enough to make her eyes widen and she lurched backwards, falling off the bed to the floor. She then ran back to her bed in the bathroom for safety.</p><p>Loki groaned and rubbed his hand down his face. She had been doing so well, too. But she couldn’t bite people, that wasn’t right.</p><p>He went through to see her, she was curled up on her bed. He crouched down next to her and slowly put his hand out towards her. When she didn’t do anything, he praised her gently. But then when he was about to touch her, she started snarling at him.</p><p>‘No. Don’t do that.’ He said firmly, the tone giving her enough clarity that it was wrong.</p><p>She started trembling, scared when he kept reaching towards her. But then she froze completely when he just placed his hand on her arm. Her eyes were wide as she looked at his hand, as if she was thinking how dare he touch her!</p><p>But when it didn’t hurt, she relaxed a little and allowed him to stroke her arm. Then he managed to stroke her hair. Well, the best he could through all the mats.</p><p>Alice relaxed a lot at his touch, realising he wasn’t going to hurt her. He kept praising her and giving her cookies.</p><p>Not wanting to push his luck, he stopped and left her alone to process everything. But ten minutes later, she came wandering through to him. He was sitting at his desk when she came right up to him and bumped his leg with her head. He raised an eyebrow as he reached down and petted the top of her head. She seemed to enjoy that.</p><p>‘This is so weird.’ He said out loud, but quietly.</p><p>She was exactly like a feral cat that was starting to come round to its new owner. But she was a human… It felt so wrong, in a way. But he knew it would all help in the long run, he was making progress.</p><p>A few days later after continuing to make more progress with touching her, he decided to go for it.</p><p>He filled up the bath, she was at his side, curiously watching him do so. Without dumping her straight in, he grabbed a cloth and wetted it, then brought it to her face. She went to move away, but he gently told her not to.</p><p>‘No, don’t move away from me.’</p><p>When she stopped and allowed him to wipe the dirt from her cheek, he gave her a cookie. ‘Good girl, that’s it. I just want to get you clean, it will make you feel better.’</p><p>After being able to wipe her whole face, he couldn’t believe how dirty she actually was.</p><p>He knew he was going to have to cut her hair, because of the mats. He summoned scissors and, slowly, he managed to cut her hair with a lot of bribing with cookies. It was cut quite short, but he had managed to save some of it so she wasn’t bald.</p><p>Then, after a lot more bribing, he managed to finally get her into the bath. She still had the gown on, but it barely did anything to cover her. By now he had seen everything through it anyway. So he was able to get it off her. Luckily, she didn’t really understand what clothes were, so she wasn’t shy or embarrassed about it.</p><p>He’d actually found she was becoming more human-like, though. She often sat up a bit straighter instead of hunching down, like she was trying to copy him.</p><p>After washing her hair and body, having to drain the bath and re-fill it three times because of all the dirt that came off her, she was like a completely new woman.</p><p>Loki was rather stunned at her beauty. She looked to be around mid to late twenties. Her hair was dark blonde, which he would’ve never guessed before-hand. She had so many scars from where Hydra had hurt her, but her bruises were all healed.</p><p>Even Alice seemed surprised when she got out of the bath and looked at herself, she was so clean! It was confusing her.</p><p>Loki had some cosy pyjamas for her. But she fought against him when he tried to dress her. When he put on the pyjama bottoms, she kept wriggling and trying to kick out at him, not wanting them on. But he gently scolded her and once he had them on, she realised they were actually quite comfortable.</p><p>She lay on the bed next to Loki, fascinated with his hands. He let her just explore, since she was curious. But then she put her hand flat against his, her fingers uncurling more and her eyes widened, like she was just realising that she was the same as he was.</p><p>He saw the confusion and panic flash through her, she started to cry, which also made her panic more as she had never cried since the experiment so didn’t know what she was doing.</p><p>While Loki was delighted to see a human reaction out of her, it still hurt his heart to see her so distressed as she bolted into the corner of the room and curled up in fear. He rushed over to her and managed to console her, hugging her.</p><p>And she allowed him to hold her.</p><p>-</p><p>Loki knew that Alice had realised she was something more. Her brain was starting to work a bit better. He had hope now that she was redeemable, that she was still human in there.</p><p>It was just going to take time to get out of her.</p><p>He knew she would be ok being around the others now, as long as he was with her. He took her into the living room to meet the others. She was scared and kept hidden behind Loki for the most part, clinging to his leg as if for her life.</p><p>But it did help her, being able to watch them all go about their daily life. He could almost see the cogs turning in her brain as she worked out what they were doing. Even if she didn’t let go of Loki’s leg while he sat at the table to eat, she remained firmly attached to him.</p><p>After a few times going out to see the others, Loki tried teaching her to walk on two legs instead of relying on her hands as well.</p><p>She was crouching down on front of him and he took hold of her hands. She looked panicked when he started to slowly stand up straight, taking her hands with him. Her knees were still bent but they were slowly straightening, he could see the panic in her eyes.</p><p>‘You’re alright, Alice. I’ve got you, you’re safe. Good girl.’ He said gently, keeping her calm.</p><p>Over time, he was able to teach her to walk on two legs. She was often a bit wobbly and needed his hand for support, but she was getting better every day. He could see she was determined to do it, the concentration and focus was there.</p><p>Her brain was definitely starting to become more human again. She was making more human noises, not so much animal ones. Loki was teaching her to speak, she could almost say her name. But she was also understanding a lot more of what he said.</p><p>She knew bed time, time to eat, let’s go see the others, good girl, bad girl, bath time and of course her own name. Slowly she was learning more and more, understanding more sentences and picking up on bits and pieces from what Loki said.</p><p>The team were amazed at how well Loki had done with Alice. They didn’t think he had it in him, to nourish and teach someone that he once deemed <em>lower </em>than himself.</p><p>But it was no doubt that Loki had fallen in love with Alice. How could he not? After spending so much time with her, helping her to heal and learn all over again.</p><p>One evening, he was sat on his bed reading to Alice, who was lying next to him with her head on his lap while he stroked her hair.</p><p>Once he finished reading, he put his book down. He smiled as he looked down at Alice, who was enjoying his attention. But then something happened that shocked him, but made him absolutely delighted.</p><p>She looked up at him and spoke her first word.</p><p>‘Loki.’ She said, it sounded a little croaky, but there was no denying what she said.</p><p>Loki beamed happily.</p><p>‘Well done, Alice. Good girl.’ He said excitedly as she repeated his name over and over again. Making sure she could say it well.</p><p>After that, there was no stopping her. She was able to say more and more words as the days went on. Loki was able to teach her to form sentences, too. And she just kept learning and growing from there at speed.</p><p>When she was able to make proper conversations with Loki and the team, everyone was delighted and so pleased.</p><p>She was able to tell them what she could remember, which wasn’t much. Aside from waking up one day, feeling like an animal. Going on animal instincts, unable to think as a human at all. She remembered agents attacking her, hitting her and electrocuting her a lot.</p><p>Alice still had a long way to go with her recovery, but she was getting there. And she would have Loki there to teach her every step of the way.</p><p>The team asked if she wanted her own room now, to give her privacy. But she said she wanted to remain with Loki. Not realising that it wasn’t completely appropriate. That was something else Loki was going to have to… <em>teach </em>her in the future.</p><p>But with the way she kept clinging to him, even now she was more confident as a human, he knew that she was his. And he was as much hers.</p>
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